Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …

My wife and I have been to the 911 sites in New York City and Washington, D.C.

We decided to visit the 3rd site, in Shanksville, PA prior to the 25th anniversary of the events on that fateful day, September 11, 2001.

The following numbers tell the story.

40 degrees North 78 degrees West…the actual location of the Flight 93 crash site.

2,230 feet…altitude above sea level for Somerset County, Pennsylvania. (Columbus, Indiana is just 627 feet above sea level.)

757-200…actual model of the United Airlines flight Flight 93 aircraft.

150…number of miles Flight 93 crash site is from Washington, D.C.

17…the gate number that Flight 93 departed from in Newark , New Jersey.

40…number of passengers and crew on Flight 93.

8:42…Time on the morning of September 11, 2001 that Flight 93 took off from Newark New Jersey, headed for San Francisco.

25 minutes…the delay for Flight 93 leaving Newark, New Jersey. This allowed passengers via seat phones and mobile phones to learn about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

9:28…the time that morning that the hijackers broke into the cockpit of Flight 93 somewhere in the air near Cleveland, Ohio.

9:57…the time that morning that the passengers of Flight 93 decided to rush the cockpit.

10:02…the time that morning that Flight 93 crashed into an empty field near Shanksville, PA.

10:06…first responders arrive on the scene that morning of the crash of Flight 93.

17…the weight of the boulder (in tons) marking the final final resting place of the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93. It sits directly in front of the Flight 93 impact crater and a grove of Eastern Hemlock trees. Access to these hallowed grounds is limited to family members and National Park Service staff.

2,997…the number of deaths due to the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.

7,000+….the number of U.S. Armed forces deaths since the start of the Global War on Terrorism since September 11th, 2001. ((Patriot Park, just across the highway from the Flight 93 Memorial has a field with over 7,000 American flags neatly displayed.)

Flight 93 was the only plane that day which was not originally-bound for Los Angeles.

By the time Flight 93 became airborne, American Airlines Flight 11 was within 4 minutes of crashing into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Flight 93 was the only hijacked aircraft that day to broadcast a distress call.

Shortly after the crash of Flight 93, a temporary memorial was set up along 500 yards of chain-link fence was set up. By March, 2002, nearly a million people had visited this temporary memorial.

The Memorial Plaza Wall and Walkway marks the northern edge of of the crash sight and debris field.

On June 21st, 2018, all the wreckage salvaged at the crash site of the Boeing 757 was transported via shipping containers to the area and buried in a private ceremony, attended by First Responders plus passengers of the families and the crew.

The Wall of Names, made of 40 white marble panels containing the name of a different passenger or crew members, lines a black granite walkway, marking a portion of the plane’s final flight path.

It leads to the wooden Ceremonial gate, made of hemlock, and you can look between the slats to see the boulder and the impact sight. The gate features 40 cut angles, one for each passenger and crew member.

The Tower of Voices remains constant to the “93 and 40” standard of the area.

The tower is 93 feet tall and contains 40 different wind chimes, from 5 to 10 feet in length.

Each wind chime has a different tonality representing the 40 different voices of the victims.

The day we visited, the breezes were not very strong so we only heard some occasional sounds that moved some of the chimes.

We felt this was a fitting way to end our tour of the 911 sites in America.

Each will wring out your emotions and make you feel closer to all Americans who were so impacted by the events of that day.

For me, to think that there’s an entire generation that was too young to have any first-hand memories of that date makes me sigh deeply.

September 11, 2026 will mark 25 years.

Unlike the other 911 sites, there are other things to see and visit in New York City and Washington, D.C..

But in Shanksville, PA, the Flight 93 Memorial is really the only show in the area.

Hard to get to.

Well worth the effort.